Mattress



F. MURPHY `lune 3,1941.

MATTRESS Filed Jan. 12, 1938 Patented June 3, 1941 'y 1 UNITED STTES PATENT OFFICE MATTRESS Florence Murphy, Boston, Mass.

Application January 12, 1938, Serial No. 184,503

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in mattresses.

More especially it provides a mattress whereby a person reclining may receive air treatment, of any of various sorts, the person and the treatment being kept apart from surrounding atmosphere in the room; and the treatment of the person being free from occlusion by clinging or contact of bed clothing resting on his person, except as to those surfaces of the :body which rest against the mattress. To this end it provides a mattress having an interior free space wherein a body of air may be enclosed and be heated, or cooled, or otherwise treated, beneath the body of a person, for effect in the space where the person is lying on the mattress, and provides a free space in which air may circulate, between the bed clothing and the support on which the person is lying, enabling the beneficial effect of the contents of the said space below to be applied to the person. Such contents may be merely air of a desired temperature, warm or cool, from which heat is to be transmitted to make a desired temperature about the person, or may be air carrying a vapor or other medium which is to pass bodily to position for treating the skin of the person by contact. There are features of construction whereby a structure embodying the invention may have the outward appearance and the utility of a mattress of conventional type. The invention is herein described as it may be applied in a mattress on which a person may recline, being its larger size and probable larger utility, but the box and resilient stout cover portion make a unit applicable to provide gentle warmth for the seat of a driver or passenger in a truck or bus.

The invention provides a mattress of box style, whose side and end walls may be rigid, stiff and unyielding, except that a relatively thick padding or tufting exteriorly of these walls, and along their edges, provides a slight resiliency for the tension of a sheet of stout top fabric, which may be either a close woven canvas, as ticking, or may be a porous fabric, as one having holes permitting easy flow of gas therethrough, which fabric, with or Without an intervening sheet, supports directly the weight of a person lying on the mattress.

This stout fabric is fastened so as to be readily removable, and is easily openable for access to the interior space of the mattress; but it preferably will close tightly the interior space and the remainder of the enclosure is of relatively impervious material so that this top fabric will be the medium through which heat or fumes pass out from the body of air in the space within the box.

The stiff walls give a general exterior appearance like that of an ordinary mattress, but

give a stiff support for holding the weight of a person on the fabric top, and provide coacting means for holding the bed covers elevated out of contact with any desired portion of the body of one lying on the mattress.

l It is an important feature that the invention may be produced at a cost which is low as compared with manufacturing costs of ordinary mattresses, and yet can be effective and durable in use.

The mentioned objects and results may be attained by employing a frame having the general shape and dimensions of the desired mattress, but with stiff side and end walls as of wood. These may be of any suitable material, but all are covered exteriorly with a substantial thickness of padding, faced with ordinary bedticking material. Also the top edges of the box preferably will be padded, simulating a rolled edge of mattress, and thereby maintaining the general appearance of a mattress, but providing a slight resilience at these edges, over which the top fabric is to be drawn and secured. This provides the top fabric with a support which, permits it to yield -a little for comfort of the person lying on it. To carry out the rolled edge effect, the lower edges of the box may be provided similarly with rolled padding. 5

The cover-ticking or other stout fabric may be of strong and durable canvas or the like, drawn as a cover over the top of the box, and extending down at each side and at each end, and removably secured to the padded walls, as by buttons or a zipper fastening. Access to the interior, for insertion or removal of a heating unit or the like, may be gained by unfastening the cover sheet at any desired location.

One or more simple single stiff wire elements having a rectangular outline of base, are adapted to embrace the padded sides of the box, from top to bottom, and to extend across from side to side at an elevation for maintaining bed covers in an elevated position.

It is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appended claim, whatever features of patentable noveltyY exist in the invention disclosed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is an isometric View showing a mattress with one bed-cover elevation device embodying features of the invention;

Figure 2 is an elevation, in section on 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an isometric view of one end portion of mattress showing a zipper type coversheet fastener, and showing the elevation device turned at a angle from its position of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a perspective of a corner fragment of the mattress of Figure 3, as seen from below,

showing how a bed sheet may cover the mattress, and be secured in place by buttons on the under side; and

Figure 5 is an elevation of a fragment at a lower corner of the mattress, showing the sheet fastening of Figure 4.

Referring to the drawing, the rectangular box'y plied to or is generated in the box under the top fabric, which in that case is of stout, porous material, or otherwise has holes for passage of gas. The tight, frictional engagement between top sheet 22 and the rolled edges I8 compels that the heatedv air remain steadily in the chamber,

while its heat passes by conduction through the frame III may be of wood, or of light and stiif sheet metal, or of woven stiif wire, so that the frame will retain approximately its natural shape under normal conditions of use of the mattress. The side and end walls, if desired, maybe reinforced interiorly of the box, by braces of any suitable type.

According to the invention, the entire exterior of this box frame I0 is overlaid with a substantial thickness of padding I4, which may be hair felt or any other suitably resilient and soft .material; and ordinaryticking I6 adds face tothe padding and maintains it in position. If desired the .padding andticking may have a tufted organization as is well known in the mattress art.

Preferably the top `edges of box I0 will be covered by the padding and ticking, with extra thickness `of paddinghere to provide the resilient rollededge IE5. A similar extra thick roll of padding Ymay be provided at the lower edge of the box to perfect the resemblance to an ordinary mattress.

The top ticking or kporous. fabric 22 may be of strong and durable material and may be drawn tightly over the top edges of the padded box frame, extending down over the side and end walls to be secured removably, as by the buttons 24 (Figs. 1, 2) or by a well known series interlocking type of fastening 26 (Fig. 3).

The drawing of the top cover ticking over the rolled top edges I8 provides for a desirable slight yielding at these topedges when a heavy weight rests on the horizontal cover ticking, as when a person is using the mattress; and the tension is principally. concentrated and sustained at the locations where the cover ticking frictionally engages around these resilient rolled edges I8,

and thus the fastening means, at a lower level,

is relieved of the greater portion of the tensile stresses.

The interior vspace 28 extends approximately throughout the full area of the mattress, providing a large air chamber within which. the air may be heated or cooled by a suitable unit, which may be set within space 28 by, merely unfastening a suiicient portion of the top sheet 22.Y In case the use to be served is a uniform passing of heat through the ticking to the per-V son lying on it, and into the space between that and the bed-clothing,.the heat goes by conduction through the ticking, and is retained, in the air in the space where the person is lying, by the bed-clothing above, which is resting on'the frame or frames which with spring resilience clamp the edges of the mattress. These standards canbe used in either the positionillustrated in Figure 1 or that in Figure 3. A stout wire is bent into form to clamp the edge part of the mattress box and to rise thence and to cross from edge to edge of the mattress box at a suitable distance above the stout fabric on which the person lies. If any enveloping of the body of the person in a particular gas or vapor is desired, a quantity of the gas or vapor is supticking; while in case of a treatment by vapor, a -porous sheet is used and the vapor can pass through to contact with that person.

In each case the supported bed-clothing, combined with the bottom and sides of the box, insulate, the person from the atmosphere of the room.

The clothing elevation element 3U is made of a single stout wire which has the cross-members 3234 with right-angularly bent terminal portionsl connected as at 36. This may be clamped on theimattress, as in Figure 1, with the crossmembersSZ, 34 extending across the mattress atan elevation suitable for maintaining bed covers out of contact with a person lying on themattress. In Figure 3 the same element 30 isshovm in another operative position, with its cross member 32 extending on the under side of the mattress, and with its cross member 34 extending ;at the elevated position at the top side, for4 supporting the bed covers.

In Figure Ll'there is indicated a bed sheet 40 buttonedon the mattress. The buttons 42 preferablygwill beof rubber, on the under side of the mattress, and they may be secured to the mattress by short lengths 44 of strong, yieldable material. The sheet 4B may be of size to extend over the top and down all four sides of the mattress, with a hemmed edge extending inward one-or twoinches on the Vunder side, all around themattress, where it may have button-holes eti-for receiving `the rubber buttons 42. The sheet maybe reinforced at points of greatest strain, although the stronger supporting sheet 22 sustains the full weight of the person lying on the mattress.V It will be obvious that a large saving of sheeting may be thus effected as compared with ordinarybed sheets, more than oil-setting theadded cost of making button-holes inthe sheet, and reinforcing certain regions.

Although the invention is illustrated in its application to mattresses, it-may be embodied in other articles such as vehicle seats, or seats suitable foroutdoor use in winter.

I claim as my invention:

A-hollow mattress comprising a stiff-walled, rectangular open-top box comprising the edges ofthe mattress and having resilient fibrous padding. material overlying the top edges of these stiff walls, and being organized `over said edges in the form of a roll, and extending downward over the exterior sides of the box; a sheet of fabricextending upward exteriorly4 along each side wall, and over saidpadding at the sides and at the top edges, and secured interiorly to the stiff walls adjacent to said edge-padding; and a secondsheet of fabric drawn tightly over the open top of the box, and extending outward and downwardover the padded top edges and sides, and over the rst said sheet; there being means fastening thesecond sheet removably in its said relation to the box at. regions below the said topedges.

FLORENCE MURPHY. 

